For the first time this season, soccer felt good (except for physically- I yet wheeze in pain.) When the ref blew the whistle at the opening of the game and we had only four people on the field, I was mentally preparing myself for a rough game. We had a man playing keep and then three of us working the ball. Surprisingly, we took control immediately. We were forced to be careful and deliberate in passing and patient with working the ball up field. Starting short obviously put us into a defensive mode which I think served us well for the rest of the game.

We didn't play short for long and soon had enough to keep a full team (of six) on the field and one sub.

This game felt so good not because we won but the chemistry on the field was the best I've felt it. Two of the guys there I had never played with before but it was amazing how we were all able to read each other and position ourselves to play great defense and win some goals. Different in this game is that there were consistently two or three of us that held back to catch the garbage on the attack and feed it back in. Our drop pass made the game. I feel like every game before tonight was somewhere close to kindergarten ball where everyone is running toward the ball but nobody is cutting off passes or creating them. Two things I did well with tonight: using the wall on the attack and gently flicking the ball over the head of the defenders when I was on the run.

Things that were annoying tonight:

THE REF. He was completely whistle happy. He called a hand ball on a trap I made between my stomach and thighs. "Where did the ball touch my arm?" I asked. He tapped his elbow. I'm glad he could see that standing behind me. Bother.

DIRTY PLAY. I find it soooo funny when these grown men playing in the bottom division get so worked up about nothing. Honestly, there was a guy that would link arms with me when we were playing up on each other and hold me until the ball was out of our play. Really? I'm 5'5" and barely pushing 120. Am I such a threat? Weeny.

YELLING. A sub on their team kept yelling from the side "If you're tired, get off the field!!!" "You guys look pathetic!" "No one's there!" And, again, his favorite, "If you're tired, get off the field!!!" The aura of this team was quite sad. They'd try to argue with ref, they played dirty, and they had a guy on there team criticizing them the whole game. It made me proud of the team I was on. We are always so positive with each other and treat the other team kindly. We have a few girls and guys that have never played and I love how we're so inviting and supportive of that. It just feels good to help other people have positive experiences and learn something new.

CHARLOTTE NOT RUNNING THE SECOND HALF. This must have been annoying to the rest of my team. I was so spent and lethargic.

We happen to be in last place in the lowest division: Follow the STANDINGS here.

The funny thing is I didn't want to play tonight at all but I knew we would be thin on numbers so I went, figuring a body on the field moving slowly is better than nobody at all. And I'm glad that I did. I was planning on running 12 this morning but only made it 7 because my body just hasn't recovered from the week, I guess. Today, 26.2 miles feels unreachable. My first two months of running were exciting and I was always noticing improvement. Now I'm noticing the opposite. I'll have a few strong runs here and there but in all I feel like what is required is more than I can do. My pace seems to be falling in response to the increase of mileage. It's demoralizing. There is always something that kind of aches and something that feels noticeably tight. I feel like I'm walking a tight rope and at any moment I could fall to injury. I can't eat before runs or I get sick and that has been inconvenient.

So, today was a hard run but a great game. I'm relieved it ended on a high note.